


A Fragment of Hope

by CoolerMudkip



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Despair, Alternate Universe - No Izuru Kamukura, Alternative Universe - Chiaki Lives, Alternative Universe - Nagito's Parents are Alive, Canon Compliant, Child Neglect, Childhood Trauma, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Komaeda Nagito Being Komaeda Nagito, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2020-09-06 07:33:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20287762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoolerMudkip/pseuds/CoolerMudkip
Summary: Hajime Hinata is a talentless reserve course student at Hope's Peak Academy. After being introduced to Class 77-B by Chiaki Nanami, he is suddenly thrust into one of Nagito Komaeda's strange schemes. Nagito wants to prove something to his parents, and decides that Hajime is the best fit to help him.(Fake Dating AU where nothing related to The Tragedy of Hope's Peak ever happens, canon divergence is about halfway through DR3 Despair Episode 3.)





	1. The Ultimate Gamer

It was the fall of Hajime Hinata's second year at Hope's Peak Academy. He had always dreamed of attending, but not in the way that he currently was. Hope's Peak Academy was a government funded institution that scouted high school students from all around the world. Each scouted student had to be the very best at what they did. They were called the "Ultimate High School Level" of whatever their talent was, or "Ultimate" for short.

However, Hajime did not have an Ultimate talent. He was in the Hope's Peak Academy Reserve Course. It was an alternative program for High School students without an Ultimate talent. And he was an average one at that. This isn't to say he was completely average, as you had to have exceptional performance to get into the reserve course, but he was average within the reserve course student body.

Sometimes he stood at the front gates to the main course's building, wishing to be a part of their class instead of his completely average one. He was friends with Chiaki Nanami, the Ultimate Gamer of Class 77-B, and spoke to her many days during their lunch break. She believed that talent didn't truly matter towards a person's overall worth, but Hajime wasn't sure if he believed her.

Hajime sat on a bench in front of a medium sized water fountain. A cool breeze was causing the leaves to fall from the nearby trees, and the water spraying from the fountain was making the air around it even cooler. He was waiting to meet up with Chiaki, whom always met him here at this time. They would play games together or just talk about school or life. Today she was late, which was quite rare.

"Hajime!" The familiar voice called. "Are you alright? You're kind of just staring at a tree."

"Huh? Oh. Uh… Nothing, I'm just a bit sleepy today." Hajime answered.

"You of all people must know that I know what that's like. What's got you so sleepy today?"

"I guess I'm just tired from studying for the exams last week."

"Well, how about we celebrate now that they're over?"

"What are you planning for that idea?"

"Well, 77-B is gonna have a little party where we all play games. Why don't you come along and show them your skills?"

"But… I can't go in the main course building! I'm not a main course student..."

"Mahiru is bringing her reserve course friend, too. The guard won't stop you if you're with me. Come on, Hajime. It'll be fine!"

"Alright… let's do it."

They silently began the short walk to the main course building.

Chiaki didn't seem to like the silence, so she broke it with some small talk. "You're going to love my classmates, Hajime! They're all so amazing, some of them are surprisingly good at games.” Chiaki said, seeming incredibly proud. “Like, Gundham is really good at this fighting game I have. He loves to play the hamster character!”

“As to be expected from the Ultimate Breeder…” Hajime said while smirking.

“Nagito too, he was so good at video board games that we had to ban him from them!"

Hajime seemed confused. “Why was that?”

“Well, I’m sure you’ve heard of the Ultimate Lucky Student title?” Chiaki questioned.

Hajime had heard of this online when checking out the newest class rosters for the main course. “Yeah… One student per class is picked by a random draw.”

“That’s right. Well, Nagito didn’t just win that draw. He’s insanely lucky. Like, he rolls 6s almost every time he even touches a dice. And that isn’t even the half of it. He’s probably led a very interesting life, I think.”

Hajime was puzzled by this. “What a weird talent...”

At the gate to the Main Course Building, the guard shot Hajime an angry glare. "What did I tell you, Hinata? You aren't allowed in the main course building. This is for people with real tal-"

Chiaki interrupted. "He's with me, Sakakura-san."

Sakakura seemed taken aback by the sudden interruption. "What do you think you're doing, Nanami? Why are you squandering your time on a talentless hack like Hinata?"

Chiaki looked annoyed. "Talent doesn't mean everything, Sakakura. Now are we allowed to go, or not?"

Sakakura relented. "Fine. Go ahead. But don't you dare let this go to your head, Hinata."

The two of them continued ahead, with Chiaki at the lead. Inside the very high tech building, Chiaki called the strangely antiquated elevator.

"That was really cool of you, Chiaki. I didn't know you could speak like that." Hajime said.

The doors to the elevator opened, and they stepped inside.

"I don't have a lot of respect for adults who use their power to bully students." Chiaki said while staring off at the old style walls of the large elevator.

Hajime stared blankly at her. “He takes his job way too seriously. I’ve tried to come talk to you before, but he’d never let me in.”

“I’ll have to get Ms. Yukizome to tell him off for that.”


	2. The Ultimate Lucky Student

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meeting the Ultimates of Class 77-B.

The elevator door opened and they stepped out. Chiaki led Hajime down the hallway again.

The building looked very futuristic from the outside, but on the inside it appeared more like a typical high school, aside from being unusually tall. Hajime was surprised that the main course building looked so average on the inside, but didn't say anything.

"This way, Hajime!" Chiaki called from down the hallway, gazing back at him over her cat backpack.

Hajime had apparently stopped walking in his dazed state, and was standing still near the elevator.

"I'm coming!" he said, then quickly moved to catch up with her.

Chiaki opened the door to the classroom. Everyone was already inside, many attentively waiting for her.

"W-Welcome back, Chiaki!" Mahiru looked away from her conversation with Hiyoko to greet her.

Chiaki and Hajime stepped inside the classroom. Natsumi, Peko, and Fuyuhiko stood in the corner, and Mahiru sat at her desk and showed Sato and Hiyoko some of her new pictures.

Something seemed off about Ryota but Hajime just couldn’t place his finger on it.

Teruteru was doing final checks on his dishes, presumably getting ready to start the event. Everyone else was chatting in the middle of the classroom.

Hajime had to put aside his slight fanboyism about being in the classroom where the Ultimates of Class 77-B learned to pay attention to what was actually being said.

Gundham turned, realizing that they had entered. "The 4 Dark Devas of Destruction inform me that Chiaki has returned. Truly Excellent." most of the others looked away from their conversations and towards the door while Gundham continued. "Now we can finally get started, the Dark Devas cannot wait to see my otherworldly performance!"

Looking enamoured by Gundham's overly dramatic speech, Sonia started to speak. "I can't wait to try out that party game you have, Chiaki-chan! Nagito looked like he had so much fun with it last time!"

"That's because he, like... got to cheat with his luck. It's so unfair!" Kazuichi said, clearly trying to get Sonia's attention. Unluckily for him, it was too late and she had moved her attention elsewhere.

"Alright, class. That's enough chatting for now! How about we get started?" Ms. Yukizome called from the front of the classroom.

"W-Wait..." Mikan said from the far corner.

"What is it, you ugly pig?" said Hiyoko, whose relationship with Mikan had still not improved in the full year they'd known each other.

Ms. Yukizome broke her usually kind demeanor. "Hiyoko Saionji! Do not treat your classmate in such an awful way! This is your last warning." she said, before returning to normal almost uncannily quickly.

Hiyoko slumped in her chair.

Teruteru broke the ensuing silence with one of his usual remarks. "But... what was the beautiful lady going to say? I'm absolutely frothing at the mouth to find out!"

"N-Nagito isn't here. I-I don't know where he w-went..." Mikan choked out.

"Are you sure you shouldn't be called the Ultimate High School Level Anxious Nurse? You can still barely speak to us after a full year!" Hiyoko had apparently not learned her lesson.

Yukizome had enough. "That's it, Saionji, we're having a private discussion right this instant. Chiaki, please go find Nagito while we're away."

"Of course, Ms. Yukizome. Would you like to come, Hajime?"

Hajime had been staring in bewilderment at the class's strange dynamic. It was nothing like his homeroom at the reserve course, which was a lot less lively and a lot more like a typical high school, where the students were quiet and the teacher was the only one who was supposed to speak. But maybe it was just because today was a special event?

Nanami was looking at him. "Hajime? Are you listening?"

"Uh... sure. Let's go."

Chiaki led Hajime out of the classroom and down the hallway once again.

"It's possible that he went to get lunch, I think." Chiaki guessed.

"But Teruteru made all the food, didn't he?"

"Last time that happened it ended up poorly... because of one of Hiyoko's stunts. He might be scared to try again..." Chiaki seemed unsure if this was the correct answer.

Just after she finished that sentence, the two walked past the boys bathroom. Muffled speaking emanated from within.

Hajime grabbed Chiaki, causing her to come to a full stop.

"Do you hear that?" he whispered.

A muffled voice, unknown to Hajime, came from the bathroom.

"Are you sure?" ... ... ... "Ok, mother. If you insist." ... ... ... "Ok. Saturday."

Shortly after this was said, there was a rustling sound, probably a phone entering a pocket. A moment later, a strange white haired boy emerged from the bathroom.

He was wearing a uniform similar to Chiaki, which did not match the rest of 77-B. His skin was ghostly pale, and his hair was like freshly harvested rice.

"Oh, there you are, Nagito! We've been looking for you!" Chiaki said, relieved they weren't going to have to search the entire school for him.

"Sorry, Chiaki! I guess I just had a little too much Dr. Hopper today. How embarrassing to waste the time of a glorious ultimate such as yourself on t-" Nagito began to say before he was cut off by Chiaki dragging him back towards the classroom.

"Putting yourself down like this makes me sleepy... Come on... we're late."

Nagito smiled and wordlessly began to follow Chiaki.

Hajime awkwardly followed the two of them. Chiaki really did make a surprisingly good class representative, even if she didn't appear overly assertive.

They arrived back in the classroom, Chiaki slightly ahead. The rest of the class was happy to finally get started.

Different students took turns playing different games, and after they both had at least one turn, Nagito pulled Hajime aside.

"Hinata. I need to have a little chat with you."

"W-What do you need with me?"

"Come on, let's go outside the room." Nagito said, already dragging Hajime towards the door.

They exited back to the hallway. Chiaki watched them with confusion, and Hajime shrugged back.

Once the door was closed, Komaeda began to speak.

"Can you please meet me tomorrow during lunchtime? I need to have a conversation with you in private."

"Huh? Why me? What has you so interested in me all of a sudden?"

"Because! A hopeless reserve course student like yourself, with no beginning and no end, no publicly available history or connections! Anything of the sort... You're perfect person! I will explain more tomorrow - if you show up, that is."

Hajime paused for a moment. Anger began to grow inside of him, but he managed to push it away. He thought he wanted to say no and leave, but something that he couldn't explain compelled him to agree.

"Uh... fine. I'll see you by the fountain tomorrow at lunch."


	3. The Talentless Reserve Course Student

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here comes the real cursed shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: Heavy implications of Child Neglect/Emotional Abuse. Be careful if that can bring up upsetting memories.

The rest of the lunch period went without much out of the ordinary. Just people taking turns playing games. Hajime was still confused with himself, not quite understanding what made him agree to Nagito's meeting.

Chiaki was walking him back out of the building. Hajime had asked her to walk him out, claiming he just wanted to chat but truthfully he was kinda afraid of Juzo's wrath from the earlier meeting.

It was doubtful that Chiaki wasn't at least on some level aware of this, but Hajime would still never admit it if prompted. They stepped into the elevator once again, and the door closed behind them.

"So, what did you think?" Chiaki asked, looking up from playing Pokémon on her DS.

"Huh? What?"

"Oh... The class, I mean." Chiaki said while making a pink girl run around with a Porygon2 on her DSi XL screen.

Hajime thought about asking how many consoles Chiaki had, but realized it wasn't an answer to what she asked. He wanted to say that was weird speaking to people that he had read so much about online, but he decided that might come off as creepy. 

"It was weird meeting the people you talk about all the time, I guess. They were mostly nice seeming people. Besides Hiyoko I guess."

"Hiyoko is just immature, she's getting better with time, I think."

"The food was really good as well. Teruteru really is deserving of his title."

"Yeah... It's kind of a simple thing, but I love it when he makes Shaved Ice."

The elevator arrived at its destination. They both stepped out of the elevator and into the lobby.

“That’s a little simple, don’t you think? I mean… he can make some pretty complicated dishes!” Hajime said.

“Yeah… but sometimes doing something simple perfectly is better than doing something complicated really well… When it comes to food anyways…” Chiaki said, clearly starting to get sleepy. She fiddled with her DSi some more.

They walked out of the school building and onto the long straight path to the school gates, where Juzo was probably waiting. The weather was clear and calm, but just starting to get cold. It seemed like fall was coming early this year. It was gonna be cold when he met Nagito the next day.

“Now you’re the zoned out one, Hajime.” Chiaki giggled. “Are you doing alright?”

“Komaeda asked me to meet him tomorrow at lunch.” Hajime said, clearly nervous about the potential outcome of the next day’s plans.

“Oh! That’s amazing!” Chiaki had snapped to her rarely seen energetic self. “Nagito is always so distant… I try to get everyone to be friendly but he just never engages…”

“What’s that have to do with me?” Hajime said, already beginning to assume the answer.

“He’s seeking you out as a friend! Please be nice to him!” Chiaki begged, with a face that was impossible to turn down, not like Hinata had much of an urge to do so.

“Alright, alright! I will!” Hajime said. 

Chiaki seemed pleased. “You gotta tell me all about it afterward! I’ll stay clear of the fountain area tomorrow, but I’ll find you at the end of the day.”

They had made it to the gate. Everyone’s favorite guard was nowhere to be seen.

“Guess we got lucky.” Hajime said, with pretty clear relief in his voice.

Chiaki giggled for reasons that weren’t obvious to him. “Don’t worry Hajime, he wouldn’t have done anything with me around anyway.” Chiaki assured. “Well, this is where we part ways...I think.” Chiaki said, then began walking towards the dorms. “See you tomorrow, Hajime!” She called over her shoulder. And with that, she turned back to her DS and vanished from sight.

Hajime hesitated for a moment, a horrifying realization dawning on him. He had completely forgotten that school let out early today. That meant one thing and one thing only. He looked around for something to do, wanting to avoid what would come next. But there was no point in avoiding the inevitable. He started the long trek home.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hajime got off the train with a sigh. He was almost back. He followed the crowd out of the station and into the street. Just another of the regular. He continued down the block, past the store he had seen almost every day for 3 years, edging closer and closer. Good thing he wasn’t the Ultimate Gymnast or something, he might be expected sooner.

There it was. Looming in the distance. If he was some kind of Ultimate Writing Prodigy, he would probably have a more unique way to describe it.

If he was an Ultimate Gamer, maybe it would be reasonable for him to stop by the arcade instead of carrying on. Sadly, sometimes things just don’t work out the way you might want them to.

Maybe if he was an Ultimate Lucky Student he would have at least found something interesting laying on the ground, or witnessed something extraordinary. But alas, stalling time was over, and it was time to face reality.

Hajime’s feet had lead him to the one place he wanted to be least, but the place he must be.

Home.

Up the stairs he went. Slowly. When he got to the door, he held his key card up to the reader. It turned green and the door was unlocked.

He stepped inside, and looked down the hallway towards the kitchen and the living room. Didn’t seem like anyone was there, maybe he was off the hook for once.

He quickly took off his shoes and put his jacket on the hook before briskly walking towards his room, on the other side of the living space.

“One second. My son is home.” A stern voice sounded, from a figure leaning on the kitchen counter.” She put the phone on hold.

By the time it registered for Hajime, it was too late.  
….

“What? Did homework take you extra time today?” His mother questioned, in response to the lack of a greeting.

“Oh, yeah… Gotta keep my grades up, ya know…” He said, awkwardly. “I got an A on that Exam. At this rate I’m likely to end up with all As this semester!”

“That’s nice.” She said, punching something on her phone keyboard. It was doubtful the words even registered. Not like it mattered what he said, anyway.

She didn’t even look up from the phone. “Gotta find yourself an Ultimate Talent for those people to scout you for, too. When we decided to only have one child, the goal was for that one to be extraordinary. You wouldn’t want the Hinatas to be failures, would you?” She said in a way that was almost criminally nonchalant for how much it hurt.

“Ha… Haha… Yeah….. I’m working on it…” Hajime said, wanting to talk about anything else in the world.

“You’re stalling.” She said, tone worsening by the moment. “You better accept that The Hope Cultivation Plan invitation.” She demanded. “It isn’t like you’re ending up with one the natural way at this point. We’ve already signed all the consent forms, now it’s just on you. You don’t want to be talentless and disappointing forever, do you? Your father would probably be saying the same thing if he were home!”

Hajime stared at the floor wordlessly. Nothing good would come out of replying.

“Well, I’ve gotta get back to my business.” His mother sighed, picking up her phone once more. And like that, she vanished back into her office.

Hajime slunk off to his room. He had almost got off easy. He laid down in his bed and stared at the ceiling for a while. He felt like he wanted to cry, but forced himself to stop. His dad always said boys don’t cry, after all.

He was invited to Hope’s Peak to be a candidate in the Hope Cultivation Project, whose would implant a talent in a talentless individual… Such as himself. Until then, they were paying his absurdly high tuition. His mom and dad might have nice jobs, but even they couldn’t afford the reserve course. Hajime was ready to sign away, until Mr. Tengan had advised him to stay away from the project. Now, he wasn’t sure what to do. If he didn’t sign, he would have to go back to his old school. And the students of his old school wouldn’t exactly be kind to a Hope’s Peak dropout.

He thought about what to do for a long time. His agreement with Nagito was the furthest thing from his mind.

Eventually, Hajime was exhausted from all of the internal debate and drifted to sleep without eating. Not like she would have noticed, anyway.


	4. Komaeda Nagito and the Scheme of a Lifetime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The meeting at the fountain is finally upon us.

Hajime walked through the gates onto the Hopes Peak campus. He had successfully avoided another conversation with his mother, and the trip there was nothing noteworthy.

He looked through the trees toward the fountain, remembering his agreement with Komaeda. Making a second mental note to himself to not forget, for Chaiki’s sake, he began walking towards the Reserve Course building.

“Hey! Hinata. We gotta talk.” Natsumi Kuzuryu called from the shade of a nearby tree, before briskly walking over to him.

“Uh… What is it?” Hajime asked, worried that they were about to have another argument like last time.

“I’m… Sorry for the stuff that happened a while back about teasing you about talent n’ shit.” She said, nonchalantly. “...And uh… Thanks for diffusing that argument between me and Sato afterwards. I feel like that mighta gone south.”

Hajime was taken aback by her sudden strange behavior. “Uhhh…. Apology accepted?” Hajime said, unsure of what he was supposed to respond with.

“If you see Mahiru, tell her I want to apologize to her too.” Natsumi said, walking away.

Hajime stood there, mildly bewildered at what had just happened. He didn’t take Natsumi as the type to apologize. Somewhere deep down, a much smarter person was on a skateboard trying to find the answers.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Classes had just wrapped up for lunchtime, and Hajime began to make his way towards the fountain. It was a decent length trip to walk down, but he always did it happily for Chiaki. For someone he didn’t really know, and was even mildly intimidated by, it was a much more difficult task to swallow.

But something compelled him to keep walking. It was probably the fact that he had promised Chaiki to hear Nagito out. Yeah, it was probably that.

Hajime made his way to his favorite bench, and sat down. He waited for a while, toying with his DS… No one showed up. He waited a few more minutes, and still no sign.

He got up, his feet instinctively taking him to the gate, which was the same thing he did when Chiaki failed to show up. Maybe he would luck out and Juzo wouldn't be around.

When he arrived at the gate, it seemed that luck wasn’t shining upon him. Juzo was standing right there, and he looked quite pleased that Hajime was without Chiaki for protection.

“Well, well, well… If it isn’t the Reserve Course Student that thinks he’s a big shot now.” Juzo said.

As soon as he finished, a familiar voice called from the distance. “Hajime!”

It was Nagito, holding 3 cans of soda in his arms. He approached at a slow, relaxed pace.

“Hello Mr. Sakakura.” Naigto said once he got close, politely. “I’ll handle it from here.”

“And who do you think you are, telling me what I can and can’t do, Komaeda?” Juzo said, not backing down so easily. “You’re only an Ultimate by technicality.”

Nagito paused for a moment, before a small grin appeared on his face. “While true, that’s rather incorrect of you to say, don’t you think Mr. Sakakura?”

“I can say whatever I plea-” Juzo didn’t get to finish that one. 

Nagito continued. “You wouldn’t want me telling Mr. Kyosuke Munakata that you’re bullying students of the school, would you?”

Juzo’s anger seemed to be nearly boiling over. He opened his mouth to fire back, but Komaeda wasn’t you done. “I mean, I could also tell him _that other thing_ that I know about you, Mr. Sakakura. I’m sure he would be very interested to know.”

Juzo froze for a moment. Before beginning to back away. “Do whatever the fuck you like, for all I care.” He said with his back turned, walking back towards the school building.

“Bye bye Mr. Sakakura! Have a good day!” Nagito called after, waving him goodbye. Nagito then turned away from waving at Juzo, back to Hajime. “Now that that’s taken care of, how about we return to the fountain?”

“Uh, are you going to explain all of that?” Hajime said, not even close to processing what had just happened. Much less how Nagito made Juzo leave them alone. They began to walk towards the fountain.

“Oh... Hinata-kun...” Nagito said in a coy tone. “Would you like a soda?” He adjusted one of the three cans into his right hand and held it out towards Hajime.

“Where did you get these from?” Hajime questioned, managing to at least pick up on the oddity of this situation, even if he didn’t completely understand the other.

“Oh, I tried to get one from the vending machine.” Nagito said. “It gave me three.”

Hajime grabbed the soda from his hand. “What do you mean it gave you three??”

“I pressed the buttons to order one, and three came out of the machine.” Nagito said as if it were the most normal thing in the world. “Did you forget what my talent is so quickly?”

They arrived back at the bench near the fountain, and sat down at it.

“You got randomly picked to be in the class. You don’t have a talent. You just got lucky.” Hajime said. pretending as if Nagito had nothing completely supernatural about him.

“You’re mistaken, Hinata.” Nagito responded. “It may not be much of a talent, but I have the talent of good luck. Good and bad things happen to me in cycles.” He paused, looking off blankly. “Didn’t Chiaki tell you all of this already?”

“I guess she did…” Hajime muttered.

Nagito sighed. “Anyways, that isn’t what I asked you to come here for.”

“Really?” Hajime said. “I assumed that you just wanted a friend or something.”

Nagito chuckled. “Oh, like I’d want to be besties with a Reserve Course.” He suddenly turned to look at Hajime with an intense stare. “No. That isn’t why I’ve called you here. But I apparently you are forgetful so let me repeat myself. I need you for a plan of mine.”

Hajime nervously laughed, as he had done many times over the past two days. “Tell me it isn’t arson or something… heh….”

Nagito continued his intense staring. “No. No arson required _this_ time. Something else.”

“THIS TIM-” Hajime was cut off by Nagito before he could finish, much like Juzo earlier.

“No. I need you to help appease my parents.” He said. “Well, maybe appease isn’t exactly the right word.”

“Like with what? Showing you have a friend?” Hajime said.

“No, my parents just refuse to accept facts.” Nagito said calmly. “They want me to have a wife to continue the Komaeda line, but a wife just isn’t in the cards for me.”

“So you want me to help you get a date? I dunno… I don’t know any girl I could hook you up with.” Hajime said. “You’d go a long way if you actually talked to people...”

Nagito smirked. “Oh, that won’t be necessary. Because you’ll be the date.”

“HUH?” Hajime demanded, taken aback. “What do you mean by that??”

“Well I mean, what else could it mean, Hinata-kun? I don’t want to marry a woman. I’m not attracted to them.” He said, before shuffling slightly closer to Hajime to avoid some water from the fountain which had been redirected because of a sudden wind breeze.

“Oh… so you’re…” Hajime stammered for a moment. “You’re gay…. And you think I’m…”

“No, no.” Nagito interrupted him. “I don’t care exactly what you are, I just need you to help get my father and mother off my back.” He explained. “They keep insisting I bring a girl home for dinner, and that I must just be confused about who I like. If I bring home a talentless boy it’ll kill two birds with one stone. They’ll finally relent on believing me, and they’ll probably never ask me to bring someone to dinner again!”

“Uh… I…. Ah... Um...” Hajime continued to be not very coherent.

“Of course I can compensate you.” Nagito continued as if his potential business partner hadn’t been reduced to a mess of Ums and Ahs.

“H-Huh?” Hajime finally snapped out of his awkward flustered state.

“I’ll pay you for your trouble.” Nagito said. “It’s not like I’m exactly low on cash.”

“Uh… How much?” Hajime asked.

“If I was more like my absolute tyrant of a CEO like my father is, you would be getting a pretty poor negotiation out of this conversation, Hinata-kun.” Nagito said, with a mild hint of amusement in his voice.

“How about 110,000¥?” Nagito said like it was nothing.

Hajime froze. That was a lot of money, essentially too much for him to even consider turning down. “F-Fine. I’ll do it.” He said.

“Good. How about we meet an hour after school to discuss some more details.” Nagito said, standing up. “I have to return to my class soon.

“Have a nice afternoon, Hinata-kun.” Komaeda said over his shoulder, and then... he was gone.


End file.
